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'The Cats of Ulthar' (H.P. Lovecraft d20)

Michael O. Varhola

Thursday, October 12, 2017 - 7:43pm

It was not too hard for me to decide what to stat up as game content for the H.P. Lovecraft short story "The Cats of Ulthar"! Nothing else would have seemed quite as appropriate as a Cat Swarm, a phenomena that shows up in some subsequent HPL stories. I decided to not give cat swarms the general ability to jump to the moon, as Lovecraft allows them to do, and am thinking this must be a situational ability that needs to be addressed elsewhere.

A cat swarm will seek to surround and attack anything it deems suitable as prey or which it perceives to be an enemy. A swarm deals 1d8 points of damage to any creature whose space it occupies at the end of its move.

Rage (Ex): Once per day a cat swarm can become enraged against an enemy that it perceives as being especially odious or unnatural (e.g., people who routinely kill cats, certain aberrations). This state lasts 10 rounds and gives the cat swarm +2 on attacks and Will saving throws and temporarily increases its damage to 1d10.

Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a swarm in its square must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Skills: A cat swarm has a +4 racial bonus on Climb, Hide and Move Silently checks, and a +8 racial bonus on Jump and Balance checks. A cat swarm uses its Dexterity modifier instead of its Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks.